On the recordJuly 14, 2011
Our Nation's unemployment rate currently sits at 9.2 percent, a full 1.6 percent higher than when President Obama took office. I am hearing from my southern Indiana constituents, and I've heard this for months now, that the President's failed experiment of spending our way to prosperity and creating great uncertainty about future tax rates and interest rates must end. A step in the right direction would be supporting this modest amendment which my esteemed colleague, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton), and I have worked on together. The amendment would merely restore eligibility criteria for the Weatherization Assistance Program to pre-stimulus levels. By way of background, prior to 2008, the Weatherization Assistance Program enabled families at or below the 150 percent poverty level to reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient. Since the stimulus bill increased this eligibility threshold, the Weatherization fund has exploded and currently has accumulated an estimated $1.5 billion in unspent funds. Moreover, the program has been a model of government waste and inefficiency. Late last year, for example, New Jersey's State auditor audited just $614,000 worth of Weatherization funds disbursed in his State. He found that $33,000 of this $614,000 that were spent actually went to no services at all. So over 5 percent of the funds spent in that State were spent on nothing.…
